Future of Amazon’s WriteOn Looks Bleak

Last month, Amazon released a new platform called WriteOn for authors to post their works in progress and solicit feedback from readers. The platform was developed to compete with Wattpad. The platform was struggling from the start and Amazon has had a harder and harder time with generating interest in the platform itself.

The service went public last month after several months of struggling through beta testing. Unfortunately the platform hasn’t taken off since going public either. Most of the conversations are taking place between authors because readers just aren’t using the platform. This is partially attributed to the fact that Amazon tried to get Kindle readers to shift to the platform and left a bad impression with a lot of those readers. Unfortunately for the authors that are posting books, readers just aren’t getting involved with the platform.

Wattpad has already engaged most of the readers that are interested in such a platform. They are engaged with the platform that they want to be on and are not branching out to WriteOn. Whether or not the platform will ever catch on remains to be seen. However, it looks like Amazon is already shifting its focus elsewhere. WriteOn may be left to slowly dwindle at this point.